MBA Team Evaluates Financial Growth for Coffee Cooperative in Guatemala

MBA team Amy Nishioka, Shane Suehisa, Takako Ogawa, Felipe Sanchez, Taro Sasaki, and Andriy Aleksandrov were funded by UCLA CIBER for their AMR research project. Their client recently established federation of eight coffee cooperatives in Guatemala. Through grants from NGOs, it was able to build a dry processing facility and is in the process of obtaining an exporting license. Despite the initial grants, the client does not have adequate working capital for its current processing business or its future exporting business and has sought out the UCLA Anderson team to assist with solving this problem.

During their visit to Guatemala, the team conducted research to verify assumptions and investigate solutions regarding-the quality of the dry processing operation-the support and expectations of the member cooperatives and farmers/growers-the availability of credit in local markets and the requirements to obtain credit- and finally, the client's ability to obtain credit in the future.

Since returning, the team is focusing on formulatting the client's financial projections and validating its value proposition so that it may faciliate garnering future business from existing members and new members and obtain financing through local banks and NGOs who concentrate in the coffee growing market.

Director of Global HIV-AIDS program for the World Bank speaks at Anderson

Invited by the UCLA CIBER and UCLA African Studies Center, Dr. Debrework Zewdie, Director of the Global HIV / AIDS Program at the World Bank offered her thoughts on the economic crisis' impact on global HIV-AIDS populations in her lecture "Global Economic Crisis and the HIV Response." The lecture was attended by faculty and students from UCLA Anderson, the School of Public Health, the School of Public Affairs, and the undergraduate and graduate colleges at UCLA. This lecture was part of the UCLA CIBER Key Regions/Critical Issues lecture series.

Chinese and Spanish for Business Classes for MBAs

At UCLA Anderson, CIBER sponsors Winter and Spring quarter language for professional purposes classes. Both Mandarin and Spanish for business are taught and offered to MBA students as a two-credit elective. A combination of first and second-year students enroll in the courses, with a beginners course in each language offered in the winter and an intermediate follow-up course offered in the spring. The goal is to help students understand and gain knowledge of grammar fundamentals and basic phrases to assist in business context as well as to imbue an appreciation for each respective culture.

Social Issues Film Series continues on April 8, 2009

UCLA CIBER, in conjunction with the UCLA Anderson Entertainment and Media Management Institute (EMMI), and the UCLA Latin American Studies Center will host the second part in a two-part series on economic crisis and social issues in international business.  The documentary, Argentina: Turning Point, released by Bullfrog Films, chronicles Argentinians in the aftermath of their economic crisis in 2001-2002.  The event will be held at 5:30pm in Cornell Hall, classroom D-313.  For more information, or to RSVP, please email ciber@anderson.ucla.edu.